justin, chloe, vivi, sylvia

Halibut Fishing

4:50am was my wakeup time. Went to downtown the Homer Spit to have breakfast. The food was cold and the waiter had a real attitude. Remind me never to go there again.

Got our lunch and license from Captain Mikes. Only 7 from the group are going – Robyn, Rick, Mike, Greg, Me, Granddad, Dad. Now we are ready to go.

Tomahawk II: Boarded the Tomahawk II, captain was Shane. Me, Granddad, Dad, and two men from Anchorage were on board. We left dock at about 6:30am. (The rest of the group went on another boat with Captain Mike.

The scenery along the spit and out to sea was beautiful. Went quite a ways out before we set anchor. It was about 2 hours out. I slept most of the way. The water was very rough with swells up to 5-6 feet! There were tons of fisherman and boats around us. Combat fishing on the water. With the tides the way they were, it was hard to stand up and keep your balance.

Ready to Fish: Shane showed us how to do it, it wasn’t very hard. Basically no techniques were involved, just let down your line the reel them in. Each line had 4 pounds of weight on it – just so it could reach the bottom. We were in 250 feet of water so reeling in the fish was a hard and long chore. Used codfish as bait. I brought the first fish in. It was about 20 lbs so we kept it. From then on out it was just a matter of throwing out your line, then reeling it in. If the fish was big enough we kept it, else we threw it back. Very early in the trip the two men from Anchorage got sick (rail hangers). They did not fish much. We ended up catching 2 of their 4 fish. About 11:00 I got hungry and had to eat. Granddad caught the biggest fish – about 30-35 pounds. All fish sizes were very very close. Had alot of fun. Since each of us had now caught our limit of fish (2 each person) we were ready to go. Shane (our captain) had trouble getting the anchor in, had to pull it in by hand, but got it in after 30 minutes. Started back to shore at 12:00pm. The boat was really rocking and rolling. It was very tough to keep your balance.

Back on shore: Docked at about 2:30 or so. We were met by a member of Captain Mikes crew. He took our fish up to their store, hung it, and then we got pictures. They cut up the fish, filleted it, then took it to the packing factory. Between me, dad, Granddad, we had 63 pounds of halibut to take home.

Fishing Notes: Here was our Location: LAT..59.deg-18.min-24.secs. LONG..152.deg-1.min-43.secs. After getting back to the hotel we found out that Mike W. Had caught a 140 lbs. Halibut! It was a nice looking fish.

Took a nap once back at the motel.

Farewell Dinner: (at the motel restaurant) The appetizers and dinner was great. (Rick was too sick to come, like me and the welcome dinner!) The main entree was halibut and chicken. It was great food! Cooked in a good sauce! Dessert was even better: it was a large cake – like a white cake with poppy seeds and in between each layer was jelly! The icing was a very thick sugar icing. It was all great food. After dinner Oliver had a presentation – jokingly making fun of people. (See AwardsAwards )

Checked out Mike and Beth’s room then went to bed. It had been a long day.